What types of folks are getting acceptances today? Early submitters? Highest gpa students? Certain majors?
Date of submission has no impact at all.
Right now the highest stats students would be hearing - those for whom Penn State is a safety because theyāre aiming Ivy+ or could be.
The college seems to have an impact: when criteria are well-established and relatively clear-cut, itās easier for them.
So, if you have a 3.8 unweighted Gpa with 10 APs with scores of 4-5 and a 1480 SAT, with bio/chem/physics&calculus some of them AP, youāre a slam dunk for Engineering and theyāre not going to parse your application for weeks.
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Ok makes sense. Thanks for sharing
What do you think a slam-dunk for Smeal is?
Itās alas impossible to know since criteria are new for this year.
Hopefully MANY applicants will post their results, good or bad, so that we have an overview.
In the past, 3.8+ max rigor uwGPA, SAT 1480+, AP Lang/AP Calc/AP social science and 4 years of a foreign language were good predictors of a āsure thing (save for unknown disciplinary elements in the app).ā
3.7 uwGPA, 12+ AP/DE/honors, SAT 1400, most of the above courses would be āhopeful but not a slam dunkā.
Most students switched to DUS taking Smeal premajor classes.
Iām guessing this year itāll be easier to get into Smeal than in previous years since way more seats now exist, having been switched from DUS with Smeal premajor intent to full blown, official, Smeal premajor.
(DUS with Smeal premajor intent students took the exact same classes and had the exact same requirements as the Smeal premajor students, which was very confusing, especially at the admission stage).
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Thanks! I was wondering if Smeal would take more kids this year. My D25 switched from Smeal to DUS last year after she applied, even though she almost had the stats for a slam-dunk, but she didnāt want to risk it. My D26 has higher stats, but her ECs and awards arenāt quite as good.
Did she choose to attend PSU(I think so but may be confusing you with someone else 
..)?
Yes AFAIK theyāll flip the numbers - most students who will major in Business will be directly admitted to Smeal and thus guaranteed a business major (depending on grades but that hasnāt changed). And a small number will come in through DUS.
She ended up not choosing PSU. She surprisingly got into UVA in-state and the cost was significantly less. Whatās funny is she really wanted a big time football team and thought UVA would be horrible. They are over-ranked, but still good, so thatās exciting for her. D26 really wants to go to a college where she is directly admitted into the business school, unlike UVA.
I think uva you have to apply to get into biz school after first year. Double hurdles suck
It makes total sense from a prestige and cost point of view!
I do dislike the holistic/competitive secondary admission process (anywhere), it puts a LOT of pressure to shoulder for freshmen - is she finding the competition bearable? Or has she changed goals (all majors at UVA are really strong so thereās no lack of options)?
Yes and UVAās acceptance rate for the business school for first years was 43% last year! My D26 really doesnāt want all that pressureā¦.applying to colleges now is enough pressure. But that leaves a lot of schools will a hefty price tag in comparison to in-state schools for her.
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She has no idea what she really wants to study and she doesnāt talk to us much, so I donāt really know. But she did tell her younger sister not to go to UVA because itās hard to find your people and the Comm (business) kids are the worst. Theyāre all competing for such few spots, thereās no collaboration. My D25 works well under pressure, but itās still too much in my opinion. She has found good friends though.
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I think uva you have to apply to get into biz school after first year. Double hurdles suck
Sharing portal astrology from last year - if the test scores button goes away around 7 pm in the portal means the decision email is coming that night (I think around midnight)! Enjoy! 
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Sigh. Email that the application status is updated, login only to find a notice that theyāre āunable to retrieve application detailsā and to please check back later! Booooo.
What???
Try Lionpath - Found this from previous years posts - āif you have the error message, you can use this link to get in: https://lionpathsupport.psu.edu. Log in with same ID and password. Then click on āundergraduate admitā and you should be able to see the letter.ā
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Thank youāthat did it! Sheās in!
College of Engineering (Mechanical) at UP (Fall)
Applied 10/12, OOS (MD)
Not that it matters, but my husband is AE ā99 and her brother is currently a junior in ERM at UP. When she texted tonight that she got her acceptance, her brother replied immediately, āThe only one you need.ā LOL. (Sheās only considering PSU and Purdue.)
Still need to finish Shreyer applicationājust couldnāt get it finished by Saturday night for the Nov. 1 interview deadline!
UW: 3.98/W: 4.94
ACT 33/SAT 1390
All classes were honors level or AP (except PE)
4 years Symphonic band
4 years HS Spanish (for 6 years total, will receive Seal of Biliteracy)
14 APs by graduation (9 completed, included AP B/C Calc with 4 on exam and AP Physics with 4 on the exam)
Good luck to everyone waiting to hear and trying to figure out the almost impossible admissions game.
WE ARE!
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My son just had the same error message and followed the suggested link hereā¦
Heās in for Fall start at UP!
Applied late September, OOS (UT)
International Politics
UW: 3.94 / W: 4.43
ACT: 33
On track for IB diploma and tons of honors and APs.
Planning to knock out the Schreyer app this week.
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